That was not very clever: visiting the National Archaeological Museum on the last day of a two week trip through northern and central Greece. Of course, it was a nice summary of everything we’ve seen, but I think it would have been better to start over here. Ever a teacher, I might have used the museum’s splendid collection of sculpture to explain to my companions the development of Greek art.
That’s what you’ll find on the first floor: lots of sculpture in a series of rooms surrounding a large hall, which is devoted to Mycenaean art. There, you will find the golden objects from Mycenae that Schliemann found. The sculpture rooms surround it. Your tour starts with some kouroi and you can easily follow the growth to greater accuracy in representing the human body. When you’ve finished about a third of your tour, the Greek sculptors have mastered every aspect of anatomy, and you will pass along many classical sculptures, including two dazzling copies of the Diadumenus and the Cnidian Aphrodite. After that, more sculpture: the fourth century, Hellenism, and finally the Roman age.
On the ground floor, there’s also a series of rooms that contain metal art. Here, you will see the Anticythera Mechanism, but also collections of arrowheads from Marathon and Thermopylae. The Egyptian part – also on the ground floor – is a bit odd in a museum dedicated to Greek art, but the collection is too small to be exposed in a museum of its own and too important to keep stored away. In the Hellenistic part of the Egyptian collection, I noticed a statue of Hephaestion that I had never seen before.
Upstairs, you will find a marvelous collection of pottery and some objects that don’t fit anywhere else, like the Lemnian inscription, written in a language related to Etruscan. Next to it is a section dedicated to the investigations at Santorini, where some splendid frescoes have been found.
Do not forget to visit the basement. There’s a little café with a garden, where you will see some of the sculptures found in the Anticythera wreck. They have a certain beauty because they are partly eroded. I found the giant Heracles absolutely fascinating.
This museum was visited in 1989, 1992, 2004, 2007, 2010.
 Nysa, Bouleuterion, "Little Refugee"
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 Athens, Varvakeion Athena
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 Mycene, Boar's tusk helmet
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 Athens, Kerameikos, Alexander with a Lion's Pelt
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 Marathon, Arrowheads
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 Thermopylae, Arrowheads
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 The fight for the body of Patroclus.
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 Artemisium, Statue of Zeus
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 Lebadeia, Relief of Trophonius
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 Piraeus, Funerary stela with ball players
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 Megara, Statue of Dionysus
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 Mycene, House of the Warrior Krater, Warrior Krater
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 Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of antelopes
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 Hellenistic ruler
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 Aegina, Ptolemy VI Philometor
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 Eretria, Lekythos (Bosanquet Painter)
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 Olympia, Head of the boxer Satyros
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 Zeus and Ganymedes
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 Epidauros, Temple of Artemis, Nike
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 Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of boxers
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 Melos, Statue of Poseidon
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 Argos, Relief of the Doryphorus of Polykleitos
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 Dodona, Figurine of Zeus Keraunos
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 Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Head of Hera
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 Athens, Kerameikos, Base of the statue of a wrestler
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 Corinth, Plate with Demeter
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 Athens, Temple of Zeus, Portrait of Polemo of Laodicea
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 Argos, Theater, Statue of Aphrodite
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 Oropos, Aeolian-Ionic capital
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 Eleusis, Tombstone of a warrior
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 Sparta, Statue of Julia Aquilia Severa, damaged after her death
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 Athens, Kerameikos, Dipylon krater
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 Piraeus, Funerary stela of Damasistrate
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 Argos, Heraion, Amazonomachy
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 Megiste, Bellerophon sarcophagus.
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 Athens, Stoa of Attalus, Attalus II Philadelphus
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 Argos, Heraion, Sima
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 Aegina, Tombstone of a young man, holding a bird
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 Smyrna, Portrait of Caligula, reworked to resemble Titus
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 Lemnos, Tombstone of an Etruscan (?) warrior
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 Lycian portrait of Omphale
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 Corinth, Relief of a hoplite
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 Athens, Kerameikos, Skull of Myrthis
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 Thebes, Head of Artemis
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 Alexandria, Alexander the Great (part of a group with Hephaestion)
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 Athens, Statue of a Minotaur
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 Athens, Agora, Late Geometric pyxis
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 Sais, Temple of Neith, Statuette
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 Athens, Kerameikos, Siren
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 Piraeus, Votive stela of a reclining Dionysus
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 Eretria, Gymnasium, Statue of Cleonicus
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 Lead figurine of Athena
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 Pharsalus, Krater with a four-horse chariot
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 Eucratides II of Bactria
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 Eleusis, Relief of Demeter, Triptolemus, and Kore
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 Piraeus, Theater, Head of Dionysus (classicizing)
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 Piraeus, Julian the Apostate
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 Mycene, Wall painting of a griffin with a warrior
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 Piraeus, Statue of a woman or Demeter
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 Mycene, Wall painting ("La Parisienne")
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 Larisa, Tombstone of Polyxena
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 Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Palladion
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 Athens, Pnyx, Lenormant Athena
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 Aegina, Temple of Apollo, Statue of a wounded warrior
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 Piraeus, Head of a bearded god
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 Thebes (?), Block statue of Prince Horwedja, governor and high priest in Heliopolis
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 Thebes, Tombstone
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 Megara, Statue of a Roman emperor (Trajan or Hadrian)
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 Chalcis-Vromousa, Head of a woman (Roman copy of a Greek original)
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 Decree of Tefnakht
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 Mycene, Dagger with lion hunt
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 Gomphoi, Relief of Odysseus and Amphicleia
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 Alexandria, Hephaestion (part of a group with Alexander)
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 Eleusis, Temple F, Cecrops and Herse
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 Larisa, Tombstone of a man with a hat
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 Eleusis, Relief of a drunk Heracles
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